Starring Bezzie, her Mad Scientist husband and their kids Chunky, Moochie, and Baby Sister in a whirlwind "adventure" involving excitement, loss, separation, a series of financially draining transnational moves, hitting rock bottom, climbing up again, and a slight change of plans. Oh, and there will be some knitting involved too!

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Good Old Fashioned Rant!

Oh, it's been a while. I don't know if it's maturity, recent life changing events or the new phases of the moon that have kept many things from ruffling my scales more than they used to, but I've recently come across something that's really pissed me the eff off.

More knitting to come. There's not much to speak of in that department. February Lady is about 5" into the lace. The last hat for the B6 Clan is in progress. Taking WIP pictures bores me, talking about WIPs bores me even more.

Onto the rant!

At the end of July, I went online and ordered myself a canning rack and a set of tongs because the ghetto fabulous canning rack I had been using (a metal plate at the bottom of my canning pot) wasn't really cutting it. Nor were my normal non-jar tongs (I've been unable to locate canning tongs anywhere around here).

I put in an order with a company where I finally found a rack that would fit my pot. I spent a long time trying to find a rack that would fit the pot—most were too big.

Said order went in on July 27.

Per the company's website—they say most orders placed before 2 p.m. that day ship that (business) day. Orders placed after 2 p.m. ship the next business day. They ask you to allow 14 days for receipt of your order but that most people receive their order between 3 to 6 business days after ordering.

When you order they have a way for your to track the status of your order online.

Two weeks goes by—I receive nothing.

Three weeks goes by—I receive nothing and the online order status shows my order as still not having shipped. I email the company.

Three weeks and two days go by—I hear nothing from the company replying to my email. I email them again.

Three weeks and five days go by—I decide that despite the fact they have weird phone hours (9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Mountain time when Arizona is participating in Mountain time, isn't that for only part of the year and then they synch up again with Pacific time? Regardless their phone hours are limited and times when I'm at work.) I'll call and leave them a voicemail.

Their voice mailbox is full.

Four weeks goes by—-exactly one month since I placed my order. I call them one more time. Still a full voicemail box.

I contact the Arizona Better Business Bureau and file a complaint.

A few hours after I file the BBB complaint—I get an auto-email from the canning company that my order has shipped.

Until I receive my order, I do not cancel the complaint.

A week later, I finally get my order in—but the canning rack only—not the tongs. There's a handwritten note on the invoice that those are allegedly on back order.

I get a reply from the BBB stating they've contacted the Cooking & Canning Company and are waiting for a reply.

Yesterday, I get a phone call from the Cooking & Canning Company wanting me to call them about my complaint and my order.

Hmmm….yes, let me think about that. You never uttered a peep to me regarding any of my inquiries on my order in the month you sat on it. Let me call you back TODAY!

At this point, I'm squabbling about $10 since I've at least received half of my order. I decide taking time out of my busy day to reply to these fucknuts is not worth $10 of my time.

I email the Arizona Better Business Bureau and cc every email address I've ever written to at the Cooking & Canning Company just so they have my email for their information (as that's one of the purposes of cc-ing a person on an email or letter--right?) requesting that the BBB to withdraw my complaint.

I get a reply today from the Cooking & Canning Company that reads:

"did you contact the BBB about that if not please do so."

Wow. Should I really be surprised that the morons running this company couldn't comprehend that they were cc'd?

After suppressing my urges to write something really vile and snippy to the fucknuts running this so called "business," I merely wrote back:

"Please reference my original email and note that the email was directed to the BBB and cc'ed to your company for your information. Thank you."

I doubt I'll ever see my tongs, which is fine.

At this point to be rid of this problem and this company that only bothers to communicate with their customers when their customers file complaints with third parties is resolution enough.

They can keep the $10/tongs they owe me.

I mean I know what it's like to be a small internet business.

Life happens. And I'm even willing to cut people some slack when serious life shit goes down.

For example one place I order stuff from—her husband just had a massive heart attack two months ago. But five days after he had it, what did she do? She left her husband for a brief moment in the ICU and she emailed everyone who had ever ordered from her informing them of this set back and to expect any orders to be late.

Shit, I bought something off ebay years ago from a lady in Virginia. It just so happened it was right as Hurricane Whateverthenamewasbackthen was about to hit. Before she fled for higher dryer grown she dropped me a fast email explaining that she would be a little late shipping out whatever it was that I ordered from her.

I don't even remember what the hell I ordered from that lady—but I remember that bit of the transaction. That she took the 5 minutes to inform me of what was going on.

And take today for example--I ordered Issue #4 of KnitCircus (I am in LOVE that (maga)zine!). The head of the magazine emailed me individually with a status report of when they expect the issue back from the printer and when it will be popped in the mail.

When I ordered, I knew it wasn't coming out for a bit--so I wouldn't have tried contacting her until November if I hadn't received anything, so it was a pleasant surprise for her to email me the ETA of my (maga)zine.

But lessoned learned. For every 10 good internet merchants out there, you're going to get one deadbeat loser that couldn't run a business out of a wet paper bag.

And I'll get by without the jar tongs.

The farmer across the street from the office is selling some killer apples that are going to make some delicious applesauce.

Alas our backyard apple tree seems to have been traumatized by the storm we had earlier this year. We lost a lot of applelings in that storm and the production on that tree has been pretty pathetic.

21 Comments:

That's so frustrating! I hope they didn't charge you for the tongs. Brick and mortar businesses can be just as bad. I called Time Warner to complain my internet and phone goes out at least once a week. They told me to call when it happens. Umm, how should I call when the phone is out!

Hahahahahaha!!! I know what I am going to give you for Christmas!!!! Yeah, it is nice having a Wally's World close by!! And Geeeeeeeeee!!! That was not much of a rant, but good reading anyway. Are those tomatoes that you grew? Love, Mom

I have had to go through this process before (and I hate that some of these retailers only get back to you *after* you lodge a complaint). I don't want to be wary of small internet shops but experiences like this make me feel that way. (Although I will concede that behaviour like this is not limited to small shops.)

How lousy! They should not only refund your money for the tongs, but send you a set for free, for your inconvenience. Don't forget, if you order something online with a credit card and don't get it, you can dispute the charge with your credit card company, so at least the merchant won't get their funds until they resolve the issue.

One of my favorite places to order online is Lands' End. They are fantastic. They ship fast, get the orders right, have great customer service (I love their online chat option for customer service) and you can return anything to them, anytime, used or not, with or without a receipt, and get a full cash refund or exchange with no questions asked.

If that canning company keeps operating the way they do, eventually they're just going to put themselves out of business.

My mom used to tell me that a dime and 5 minutes could save me a world of trouble. That was in the days when phone calls were 10 cents and no one had cell phones. It's hard to believe that the company didn't bother to email you before you called the bbb. I like dealing with small companies. I feel like I'm helping spur the economy in a meaningful way.

That's quite a saga of the canning supplies. Some people just should not try to run an online business. Maybe they do fine with a little bricks'n'mortar storefront: if it's on the shelf, they sell it. If not, they order more. But the nuances of inventory control and communication in the modern age seem to be eluding.

It somehow seems worse that it's a $10 pair of canning tongs that are rattling the company. You wonder how they've stayed in business. If you need any other canning stuff, shout out. We're tripping over the stuff in Western Connecticut.

A few years back I joined in on an auction and paid for a great set of cards I was so looking forward too. I never received them. I mean the money went to a good cause but to this day it bugs me that the person who should have sent them first did not contact me even after I sent a email telling her I was upset and years after has never said anything about it or ever apologized. I know there were some tough times for her but just an acknowledgment....I would not even have cared about getting them knowing what had gone on in her life but acknowledgment would lhave been nice.

It has made me leery of doing stuff online. I will donate but don't get into anything where I might get burned and not receive something I paid for.

I think you're too nice. I would have been livid and DEMANDED my money back - ALL of it, and cancel my damned order, and give me back my freakin' money! Maybe it's only $10, but I would have taken my $10 and found the tongs somewhere else.

Seriously, those tongs ... they're awesome! I worked with non-canning tongs for years and thought for certain I was going to end up with carpal tunnel. You need yer tongs if you're going to do any canning on a regular basis.